I’m hoping to draw on the experience of all the Canadians who have come before me.
How do you go about getting your Biotest products in Canada? So far I’ve been going to SND but given the current state of our dollar I look at SND’s $64.99 price tag and then at the T-Nation store’s $27.99 and can’t help but sulk every time I hit the checkout.
Going through a container a week (v-diet) is getting very pricey, is there a better way? I haven’t tried ordering from the online store yet because of fears of border taxes.
Has anybody ordered and been hit with them, and how bad are they? Furthermore, how do they feel about ordering products that we don’t seem to have in Canada (Metabolic Drive bars) and products that we aren’t allowed to have in Canada (HOT-ROX)?
I’m not entirely up on my thermogenics law knowledge, so I’m hoping that it’s still free to be imported by private citizens but I’d rather not find out that I’m wrong with a fine.
I live near and work in Toronto so if there are any neat little shops anybody knows about there that carry this stuff that would be very helpful. I’ll also mention just in case that I don’t plan to be making any trips down to Buffalo soon.
While I’m no legal expert, I don’t think they would fine you for an attempted personal import.
In any case, whenever I order something it always gets through… including HOT-ROX. Ontario seems to be reasonable though I’ve seen people out west reporting ridiculous customs issues.
Also just another thought. If you are placing an order to be delivered in Canada and plan to use FedEx shipping, call FedEx and ask what their brokerage fees are to import from the US as it will likely vary by dollar value of the package.
I haven’t imported with FedEx before but I have had shipments (not supplements) with UPS and the had a grid.
A little bit of investigation can remove many surprises when your package arrives.
I place orders from the Biotest store all the time (I’m also near toronto, pearson to be exact) and I’ve never had a problem with any of my orders. In the past I (or one of the people I order with) have ordered:
Metabolic Drive
Metabolic Bars
Spike
Creatine
Flameout
ZMA
HOT-ROX (actually, not 100% sure about this one)
PowerDrive
Surge
None of these have ever been denied.
BTW, it is so much cheaper to buy from Biotest v. SND or any of the retailers up here. I think after shipping, brokerage and GST it costs me $34 - $36CDN.
I also usually get them to ship via FedEx instead of USPS, but I’m impatient
I’d suggest you purchase your supplements through the Biotest store. When you included the conversion of CAN$ to US$, shipping and customs, it ended up costing 60% more than the listed price (ex:100$ US of supps from Biotest = 160$ CAN).
Although it’s still expensive, it ends up being cheaper than from SND Canada.
(P.S. the 60% rule applied when 1$Can=0.82$ US, so now it will probably be around 50%)
ya, the whole yohimbine thing is weird. it is a controlled substance, but because it is not in the schedules associated with penalties and part of an OTC product, you get the 3 month supply. when i got caught with it, they told me that had it been something like coke, i would be screwed, but because it is not scheduled thus only non-reporting fines applied.
for the record, i live in the vancouver area and i pay about $32 for a tin of Metabolic Drive once gas, taxes, and mailbox fees are factored in. i order $200-300 usually so i get free shipping and the costs are spread over a larger purchase.
another tip for those travelling in vehicles is go during the weekend when they usually don’t send anyone over for less than $200 worth of goods, an easy way to get a few HOT-ROX bottles the government doesn’t know about.
I’ve asked GNC in the Eaton Centre to order products. All they could manage to get their hands on, or was willing to get, was Surge at a cost of 70 something dollars.
Unfortunately by the time they called to let me know it’s in the store I had already bought my supplies a week earlier online. I’m not going to wait on ifs ands and buts.
I’ve bought several items at one time, Surge, Metabolic Drive Complete, Flameout, Alpha Male, BCAA, MG Creatine and ZMA at the same time, paid 40 bucks for FedEx service and an additional 9 dollars or so when the package arrived at my work.
All together for the above was under $200.
Ordered online I believe on a Thursday and got it the following Monday and was pumped over the quick service.
Worth it?
Absolutely.
Hackworth, I also live in Ontario and have no issues with receiving any of my Biotest products and I use quite a few. My advice to you if were planning on ordering is to plan ahead and make a big order, less frequently. Go for the Fed-Ex as well!
I had been using UPS up until recently and decided to give Fed-Ex a go last time. It was here in half the time and ended up costing me less than $11 at the door instead of the usual almost $25. Well worth it as I have yet to find anything that compares in quality (where I am anyhow).
I have ordered 2 bottles of HOT-ROX Extreme and they got through in 5 business days no problem:) all totalled each bottle cost me about 58 dollars canadian, which is great because a health food store here in Kelowna is charging over a hundred bucks for a bottle of the old original HOT-ROX! HAHA!
I buy all the Biotest products from this site. I usually get a few protein powders and a Surge. Border fees almost always come in at $10-15. Thats on a 80-100$ purchase with 30-35$ shipping.
BTW, it is so much cheaper to buy from Biotest v. SND or any of the retailers up here. I think after shipping, brokerage and GST it costs me $34 - $36CDN.
I also usually get them to ship via FedEx instead of USPS, but I’m impatient :D[/quote]
I placed a decent sized order from Biotest on Sunday and the price was ridiculous. I got 3 containers of Metabolic Drive among a ton of other things and the total price including shipping was about the same as buying only the Metabolic Drive locally. Now I’m just waiting to see what the border tax man has to say about all this.
Well, I’ll disagree w/ the masses here. I will only use UPS from now on. I ordered from FedEx a while back just to compare. It was not only more initially from here, it cost me more when I went and picked up my order. From what I remember, it’s about $10 more to use fedex and it cost me about $7 more when it arrived.
I’ve said this before when others have asked, but I have always received everything from Biotest. I live in Ontario and have received HRX (most recently) and MAG-10 and Androsol in the past.
I ordered 4 jugs of Metabolic Drive one time and it worked out to just over $40 w/ shipping and import fees. The supp shop here charges $60. Although, lucky for me, the guy there likes me and will see me all his stock for $30/bottle 'cause no one else buys it. That includes Surge too.
[quote]TYR wrote:
Well, I’ll disagree w/ the masses here. I will only use UPS from now on. I ordered from FedEx a while back just to compare. It was not only more initially from here, it cost me more when I went and picked up my order. From what I remember, it’s about $10 more to use fedex and it cost me about $7 more when it arrived.[/quote]
I’ll probably try a FedEx shipment next to see what it comes too, but I did find out one thing with my order. Customs can classify supplements under a number of categories and that will impact what you pay.
For example, mine were classified as “Vitamins and Minerals”. This meant I only had to pay GST. Different classifications would result in other charges but I didn’t ask for details.
[quote]TYR wrote:
I’ve said this before when others have asked, but I have always received everything from Biotest. I live in Ontario and have receive HRX (most recently) and MAG-10 and Androsol in the past.[/quote]
Just yesterday I drove across the border with a fairly large shipment. One customs officer questioned the HRX, but then asked another guy and he said it was alright (up to 3 month supply). The officer did specifically ask if I had any MAG-10.
[quote]TYR wrote:
I ordered 4 jugs of Metabolic Drive one time and it worked out to just over $40 w/ shipping and import fees. The supp shop here charges $60. Although, lucky for me, the guy there likes me and will see me all his stock for $30/bottle 'cause no one else buys it. That includes Surge too.
[/quote]
Bastard!
